.TH NETINFO 5 "October 8, 1990" "Apple Computer, Inc."
.SH NAME
netinfo \- network administrative information
.SH DESCRIPTION
NetInfo stores its administration information in a hierarchical database.
The hierarchy is composed of nodes called NetInfo
.I directories.
Each directory may have zero or more NetInfo
.I properties
associated with it.
Each property has a
.I name
and zero or more
.I values.
.PP
This man page describes those directories and properties which have
meaning in the system distributed by Apple. Users and 3rd-parties may
create other directories and properties, which of course cannot be
described here.
.PP
.I Search Policy
.PP
Virtually everything that utilizes NetInfo for lookups adheres to the
following convention. Search the local domain first. If found, return
the answer. Otherwise, try the next level up and so on until the top
of the domain hierarchy is reached. For compatibility with Yellow Pages
and BIND, see
.I lookupd(8).
.PP
.I Database Format
.PP
At the top level, the root directory contains a single property called
.I master.
This properties indicates who is the master of this database, i.e., which
server contains the master copy of the database. The singular value of master
contains two fields, a hostname and a domain tag separated by a '/' which
uniquely identifies the machine and process serving as master of this data.
For example, the entry
.I clothier/network
says that the
.I netinfod(8)
process serving domain tag
.I network
on the machine
.I clothier
controls the master copy of the database.
.PP
For added security, a second property can be installed in the root directory
to limit who can connect to the domain. By default, anybody can connect to
the domain, which would allow them to read anything that is there (writes are
protected however). If this default is undesirable, a property called
.I trusted_networks
should be enabled in the root directory. Its values should be the network
(or subnet) addresses which are assumed to contain trusted machines which
are allowed to connect to the domain. Any other clients are assumed to be
untrustworthy. A name may be used instead of an address. If a name is given,
then that name should be listed as a subdirectory of "/networks" within the
same domain and resolve to the appropriate network address.
.PP
At the second level, the following directories exist which have the
following names (property named "name" has these values):
.PP
.RS
.I aliases
.LP
.I groups
.LP
.I machines
.LP
.I mounts
.LP
.I networks
.LP
.I printers
.LP
.I protocols
.LP
.I rpcs
.LP
.I services
.LP
.I users
.RE
.PP
These directories contain, for the most part, only the single property
named "name". The exception is the "machines" directory which contains
other properties having to do with automatic host installation. These
properties are the following:
.PP
.RS
"promiscuous" - if it exists, the bootpd(8) daemon is
promiscuous. Has no value.
.LP
"assignable_ipaddr" - a range of IP addresses to automatically assigned,
specified with two values as endpoints.
.LP
"configuration_ipaddr" - the temporary IP address given to unknown machines in the process of booting.
.LP
"default_bootfile" - the default bootfile to assign to a new machine.
.LP
"net_passwd" - optional property. If it exists, it's the encrypted password
for protecting automatic host installations.
.RE
.PP
The directory "/aliases" contains directories which refer to individual
mailing aliases. The relevant properties are:
.PP
.RS
"name" - the name of the alias
.LP
"members" - a list of values, each of which is a member of this alias.
.RE
.PP
The directory "/groups" contains directories which refer to individual
system groups. The relevant properties are:
.PP
.RS
"name" - the name of the system group
.LP
"passwd" - the associated password
.LP
"gid" - the associated group id
.LP
"users" - a list of values, each of which is a user who is a member
of this system group.
.RE
.PP
The directory "/machines" contains directories which refer to individual
machines. The relevant properties are:
.PP
.RS
"name" - the name of this machine. This property can have multiple values
if the machine name has aliases.
.LP
"ip_address" - the Internet Protocol address of the machine. This property
can have multiple values if the machine has multiple IP addresses. Note
that the address MUST be stored in decimal-dot notation with no leading
zeroes.
.LP
"en_address" - the Ethernet address of the machine. Note that the address
MUST be stored in standard 6 field hex Ethernet notation, with no leading
zeros. For example, "0:0:f:0:7:5a" is a valid Ethernet address,
"00:00:0f:00:07:5a" is not.
.LP
"serves" - a list of values, each of which is information about which
NetInfo domains this machine serves. Each value has the format
.I domain-name/domain-tag.
The domain name is the external name of the domain served by this machine as
seen from this level of hierarchy. The domain tag is the internal
name associated with the actual process on the machine that serves this
information.
.LP
"bootfile" - the name of the kernel that this machine will use by
default when NetBooting.
.LP
"bootparams" - a list of values, each of which is a Bootparams protocol
key-value pair. For example, "root=parrish:/" has the Bootparams key
"root" and Bootparams value "parrish:/".
.LP
"netgroups" - a list of values, each of which is the name of a netgroup
of which this machine is a member.
.RE
.PP
The directory "/mounts" contains directories which refer to filesystems.
The relevant properties are:
.PP
.RS
"name" - the name of the filesytem. For example, "/dev/od0a" or
"papazian:/".
.LP
"dir" - the directory upon which this filesystem is mounted.
.LP
"type" - the filesystem type of the mount
.LP
"opts" - a list of values, each of which is a
.I mount(8)
option associated with the mounting of this filesystem.
.LP
"passno" - pass number on parallel
.I fsck(8)
.LP
"freq" - dump frequency, in days.
.RE
.PP
The directory "/networks" contains directories which refer to Internet
networks. The relevant properties are:
.PP
.RS
"name" - the name of the network. If the network has aliases, there
may be more than one value for this property.
.LP
"address" - the network number of this network. The value MUST be
in decimal-dot notation with no leading zeroes.
.RE
.PP
The directory "/printers" contains directories which refer to
printer entries. The relevant properties are:
.PP
.RS
"name" - the name of the printer. If the printer has alias, this
property will have multiple values.
.LP
"lp", "sd", etc. - the names of
.I printcap(5)
properties associated with this printer. If the value associated with
the property name is numeric, the number has a leading "#" prepended
to it.
.RE
.PP
The directory "/protocols" contains directories which refer to
transport protocols. The relevant properties are:
.PP
.RS
"name" - the name of the protocol. If the protocol has aliases, the
property will have multiple values.
.LP
"number" - the associated protocol number.
.RE
.PP
The directory "/services" contains directories which refer to
ARPA services. The relevant properties are:
.PP
.RS
"name" - the name of the service. If the service has aliases, the
property will have multiple values.
.LP
"protocol" - the name of the protocol upon which the service runs.
If the service runs on multiple protocols, this property will have
multiple values.
.LP
"port" - the associated port number of the service.
.RE
.PP
The directory "/users" contains information which refer to users.
The relevant properties are:
.PP
.RS
"name" - the login name of the user.
.LP
"passwd" - the encrypted password of the user.
.LP
"uid" - the user id of the user.
.LP
"gid" - the default group id of the user.
.LP
"realname" - the real name of the user.
.LP
"home" - the home directory of the user.
.LP
"shell" - the login shell of the user.
.SH "SEE ALSO"
.I aliases(5)
.LP
.I bootparams(5)
.LP
.I bootptab(5)
.LP
.I fstab(5)
.LP
.I group(5)
.LP
.I hosts(5)
.LP
.I lookupd(8)
.LP
.I netinfod(8)
.LP
.I netgroup(5)
.LP
.I networks(5)
.LP
.I passwd(5)
.LP
.I printcap(5)
.LP
.I protocols(5)
.LP
.I services(5)